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Most interesting -- yet puzzling -- is some of the 'expert' commentary.

First Felix von Borck noted that most people won't need a battery swap or a recharge away from home on most days. It's a cogent point, I think.

However. . . Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, a German professor and car specialist, was even more emphatic. "All that is very well and good, but batteries for electric cars weigh between 50 and 100 kilograms, you need machines to change them. It is not very realistic," he told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

Eh? What's unrealistic about using machines? But wait, it gets better. . .

Dudenhoeffer insists that "the electric car is and will remain, a fantasy".

The article ends there, without any kind of explanation or justification for that very peculiar remark.

Dudenhoffer is obviously misguided. However, I still think the logistics involved in creating some universal removable battery pack makes that option almost impossible and involves too many compromises and is basically unworkable. I also feel that with the constantly improving battery technology it's completely unnecessary.

Dudenhoffer is obviously misguided. However, I still think the logistics involved in creating some universal removable battery pack makes that option almost impossible and involves too many compromises and is basically unworkable. I also feel that with the constantly improving battery technology it's completely unnecessary.

Click to expand...

Erm. . . I think it could be workable from a technical standpoint. Remember they are considering batteries considerably smaller than Tesla's ESS. It would free up a lot of room and mass for implementing the quick-change interface. (Remember, quick-change was used successfully in Formula Lightning racing.)

But the other question, about whether it makes economic sense, is a lot tougher. The battery-exchange scheme will be competing against so many other options. . . Home charging. Away-from-home charging. PHEVs and "range-extended electric cars". The old gas car you kept as a second car. The gas car that you could rent for that once-a-year road trip.

And of course. . . quick-change implies that for every electric car there are 1+X batteries in existence. That's not a good formula for reducing the cost of batteries. I'd rather just get one big battery to begin with.

My take is that they will (if nothing else by the force of around 100 000 Volts sold each year) agree on a very-quick charging station setup or a relatively quick charging option like Tesla installs in your garage, standard. So a standard for plugs and interface for quick-charging will handle those long trips. People might also use the current quick-charging technology called gaspump. It will work for the long roadtrips and they will long back to their comfortable EVs

That's my idea anyway as it includes a bare minimum of infrastructure improvements, and while they are comparing themselv to Vodaphone they are forgetting everyone has their own free calls celltower at home to continue their analogy...